The CALeDNA program: Citizen scientists and researchers inventory California's biodiversity

Climate change is leading to habitat shifts that threaten species persistence throughout California's unique ecosystems. Baseline biodiversity data would provide opportunities for habitats to be managed under short-term and long-term environmental change. Aiming to provide biodiversity data, the UC Conservation Genomics Consortium launched the California Environmental DNA (CALeDNA) program to be a citizen and community science biomonitoring initiative that uses environmental DNA (eDNA, DNA shed from organisms such as from fur, feces, spores, pollen or leaves). Now with results from 1,000 samples shared online, California biodiversity patterns are discoverable. Soil, sediment and water collected by researchers, undergraduates and the public reveal a new catalog of thousands of organisms that only slightly overlap with traditional survey bioinventories. The CALeDNA website lets users explore the taxonomic diversity in different ways, and researchers have created tools to help people new to eDNA to analyze community ecology patterns. Although eDNA results are not always precise, the program team is making progress to fit it into California's biodiversity management toolbox, such as for monitoring ecosystem recovery after invasive species removal or wildfire.

Download Full-text

The California environmental DNA “CALeDNA” program

10.1101/503383 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Rachel S Meyer ◽

Emily E Curd ◽

Teia Schweizer ◽

Zack Gold ◽

Dannise Ruiz Ramos ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Environmental Dna ◽

Conservation Genomics ◽

The Public ◽

Biodiversity Inventories ◽

Research And Education ◽

Science Framework ◽

Community Complexity ◽

Community Science ◽

Threaten Species ◽

The University

AbstractGlobal change is leading to habitat shifts that threaten species persistence throughout California’s unique ecosystems. Baseline biodiversity data provide opportunities for ecosystems to be managed for community complexity and connectivity. In 2017, the University of California Conservation Genomics Consortium launched the California Environmental DNA (CALeDNA) program, a community science initiative monitoring California’s biodiversity through environmental DNA (eDNA)—DNA shed from organisms through fur, mucus, spores, pollen, etc. Community scientists collect soil and sediment samples, then researchers analyze the eDNA in the samples and share results with the public. The results are catalogues of thousands of organisms per sample, ranging from microbes to mammals. The CALeDNA website presents biodiversity inventories in a platform designed for the public and researchers alike, as well as user-friendly analysis tools and educational modules. Here, we present CALeDNA as a scalable community science framework that can harmonize with future biodiversity research and education initiatives.

Download Full-text

Evaluating the Financial Performance Through ‘Consumer Centric Decision’ Approach in Pharmaceutical Companies of Bangladesh: a Business Planning Perspective

European Journal of Economics and Business Studies ◽

10.26417/ejes.v9i1.p168-183 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 168

Author(s):

Md Mostafizur Rahman ◽

Mahmud Uz Zaman

Keyword(s):

Market Share ◽

Swot Analysis ◽

Financial Analysis ◽

Pharmaceutical Companies ◽

Short Term ◽

The Public ◽

Investment Choice ◽

Good Investment ◽

Business Analysis

Pharmaceuticals agglomerations consistently use their brand image and versatile product portfolios to consolidate their position in the financial sector, which is evident in their continuous profit making and expansion in market share. This paper explores the short-term and long-term investment attractiveness through ‘consumer centric decision’ approach in two selected pharmaceutical companies, Renata Limited and Orion Pharma Limited, of Bangladesh over the last three years’ period. This research adopts a systematic approach which primarily addresses the various concerns of investors to illustrate the decision-making process of the existing and future investors. Using primarily domestic transaction data, this study explores how the leading pharmaceuticals companies of Bangladesh effectively use the wide array of drug portfolios mix with appropriate branding techniques to increase their financial profit and market share simultaneously. Both SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces Model explore the business analysis of Renata Limited in compare to Orion Pharma Limited that provides a conclusion regarding investors’ decision to invest in Renata Limited. Considering the financial analysis, Renata’s financial liquidity is not very satisfactory and could have been improved further if management is prudent on financial strategy settings. Findings of the business analysis indicate that Renata Limited would be a good investment choice for existing and prospective shareholders based on its opportunities for long term and short term growth and further expansion in developing the market. The results suggest that even lower liquidity coupled with higher interest borrowings can be balanced by posing positive picture to the public shareholders by returning the positive dividend to them.

Download Full-text

Approaches to Supporting Local and Community Development

10.1093/oso/9780198817369.003.0030 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Liesel Mack Filgueiras ◽

Andreia Rabetim ◽

Isabel Aché Pillar

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Mining Company ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Social Partnership ◽

The Public ◽

Mining Investment ◽

The Social ◽

Corporate Social

Reflection about the role of community engagement and corporate social investment in Brazil, associated with the presence of a large economic enterprise, is the major stimulus of this chapter. It seeks to present how cross-sector governance can contribute to the social development of a city and how this process can be led by a partnership comprising a corporate foundation, government, and civil society. The concept of the public–private social partnership (PPSP) is explored: a strategy for building a series of inter-sectoral alliances aimed at promoting the sustainable development of territories where the company has large-scale enterprises, through joint efforts towards integrated long-term strategic planning, around a common agenda. To this end, the case of Canaã dos Carajás is introduced, a municipality in the State of Pará, in the Amazon region, where large-scale mining investment is being carried out by the mining company Vale SA.

Download Full-text

Take it to the (public) bank: The efficiency of public bank loans to private firms

German Economic Review ◽

10.1515/ger-2019-0023 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anders Kärnä

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Capital Markets ◽

Firm Growth ◽

Bank Loans ◽

Government Interventions ◽

The Public ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Economic Output ◽

Unique Dataset

AbstractIncomplete capital markets and credit constraints for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are often considered obstacles to economic growth, thus motivating government interventions in capital markets. While such policies are common, it is less clear to what extent these interventions result in firm growth or to which firms interventions should be targeted. Using a unique dataset with information about state bank loans targeting credit-constrained SMEs in Sweden with and without complementary private bank loans, this paper contributes to the literature by studying how these loans affect the targeted firms for several outcome variables. The results suggest that the loans create a one-off increase in investments, with long-term, positive effects for sales and labor productivity but only for firms with 10 or fewer employees. Increased access to capital by firms can therefore produce increases in economic output but only in a specific type of firm. This insight is of key importance in designing policy if the aim is to increase economic growth.

Download Full-text

Transference of Citizen Science Program Impacts: A Theory Grounded in Public Participation in Scientific Research

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d13080339 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 339

Author(s):

Louise I. Lynch-O’Brien ◽

Wayne A. Babchuk ◽

Jenny M. Dauer ◽

Tiffany Heng-Moss ◽

Doug Golick

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Social Process ◽

Informal Science Education ◽

Constructivist Grounded Theory ◽

Science Program ◽

Program Leaders ◽

The Public ◽

The Social ◽

Added Benefit

Citizen science is known for increasing the geographic, spatial, and temporal scale from which scientists can gather data. It is championed for its potential to provide experiential learning opportunities to the public. Documentation of educational outcomes and benefits for citizen scientists continues to grow. This study proposes an added benefit of these collaborations: the transference of program impacts to individuals outside of the program. The experiences of fifteen citizen scientists in entomology citizen science programs were analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory methodology. We propose the substantive-level theory of transference to describe the social process by which the educational and attitudinal impacts intended by program leaders for the program participants are filtered by citizen scientists and transferred to others. This process involves individual and external phases, each with associated actions. Transference occurred in participants who had maintained a long-term interest in nature, joined a citizen science program, shared science knowledge and experiences, acquired an expert role to others, and influenced change in others. Transference has implications for how citizen scientists are perceived by professional communities, understanding of the broader impacts and contributions of citizen science to wicked problems, program evaluation, and the design of these programs as informal science education opportunities.

Download Full-text

The value of environmental DNA biobanking for long-term biomonitoring

Nature Ecology & Evolution ◽

10.1038/s41559-018-0614-3 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (8) ◽

pp. 1192-1193 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Simon N. Jarman ◽

Oliver Berry ◽

Michael Bunce

Keyword(s):

Environmental Dna

Download Full-text

Virus Eradication and Synthetic Biology: Changes with SARS-CoV-2?

Viruses ◽

10.3390/v13040569 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 569

Author(s):

Jean-Nicolas Tournier ◽

Joseph Kononchik

Keyword(s):

Clinical Trials ◽

Synthetic Biology ◽

Viral Disease ◽

Virus Eradication ◽

Disease Eradication ◽

The Public ◽

The Past ◽

The World ◽

Significant Effort

The eradication of infectious diseases has been achieved only once in history, in 1980, with smallpox. Since 1988, significant effort has been made to eliminate poliomyelitis viruses, but eradication is still just out of reach. As the goal of viral disease eradication approaches, the ability to recreate historically eradicated viruses using synthetic biology has the potential to jeopardize the long-term sustainability of eradication. However, the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 pandemic has highlighted our ability to swiftly and resolutely respond to a potential outbreak. This virus has been synthetized faster than any other in the past and is resulting in vaccines before most attenuated candidates reach clinical trials. Here, synthetic biology has the opportunity to demonstrate its truest potential to the public and solidify a footing in the world of vaccines.

Download Full-text

Making the unfamiliar personal: arts-based ethnographies as public-engaged ethnographies

Qualitative Research ◽

10.1177/1468794113483302 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 402-413 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Lydia N Degarrod

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

Embodied Knowledge ◽

Art Making ◽

The Public ◽

New Thinking ◽

Public Exhibition ◽

Forms Of Knowledge

I present the installation Geographies of the Imagination, an arts-based ethnography about long-term exile, as a form of public ethnography that unveils the acquisition and transmission of ethnographic knowledge as interactive, emergent, and creative. I will show how the methods of collaboration and art making created bodily forms of knowledge among the participants and the audience at the exhibition of the installation that have the potential for stimulating new thinking. The use of these methods advanced the acquisition of ethnographic knowledge, and heightened the development of empathy among the participants and the researcher. Furthermore, the public exhibition of this installation allowed the participants to exercise social justice, and created a setting for socially experiencing embodied knowledge.

Download Full-text

Capturing Spatial and Temporal Patterns of NO2 in Cities using mobile and stationary DOAS measurements

10.5194/dach2022-153 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mark Wenig ◽

Sheng Ye ◽

Ying Zhu ◽

Hanlin Zhang

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Hot Spots ◽

Temporal Patterns ◽

Optical Absorption Spectroscopy ◽

Spatial And Temporal Patterns ◽

The Public ◽

Measurement Height ◽

Weekly Cycles

The problem of elevated NO2 levels in cities has gained some attention in the public in recent years and has given rise to questions about the plausibility of banning diesel engines in cities, the meaning of exceedances of air quality limits and the effects of corona lock-downs on air quality to name a few. Urban air quality is typically monitored using a relatively small number of monitoring stations. Those in-situ measurements follow certain guidelines in terms of inlet height and location relative to streets, but the question remains how a limited number of point measurements can capture the spatial variability in cities. In this talk we present two measurement campaigns in Hong Kong and Munich where we utilized a combination of mobile in-situ and stationary remote sensing differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) instruments. We developed an algorithm to separate spatial and temporal patterns in order to generate pollution maps that represent average NO2 exposure.&#160; We use those maps to identify pollution hot spots and capture the weekly cycles of on-road NO2 levels and spatial dependency of long-term changes and we analyze how on-road measurements compare to monitoring station data and how the measurement height and distance to traffic emissions have to be considered when interpreting observed concentration patterns.

Download Full-text

Chronic post-amputation pain & blast injury: An analysis of British First World War Veterans’ pension records, 1914-85

Journal of Military Veteran and Family Health ◽

10.3138/jmvfh-2021-0044 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah Dixon Smith ◽

David Henson ◽

George Hay ◽

Andrew S.C. Rice

Keyword(s):

Blast Injury ◽

First World War ◽

World War ◽

The Public ◽

The First World War ◽

Future Care ◽

Medical Teams ◽

The Uk ◽

First World

LAY SUMMARY The First World War created the largest group of amputees in history. There were over 41,000 amputee Veterans in the UK alone. Recent studies estimate that over two thirds of amputees will suffer long-term pain because of their injuries. Medical files for the First World War have recently been released to the public. Despite the century between the First World War and the recent Afghanistan conflict, treatments for injured soldiers and the most common types of injuries have not changed much. A team of historians, doctors, and amputee Veterans have collaborated to investigate what happened next for soldiers injured in the war and how their wounds affected their postwar lives, and hope that looking back at the First World War and seeing which treatments worked and what happened to the amputees as they got older (e.g., if having an amputation put them at risk of other illnesses or injuries) can assist today’s Veterans and medical teams in planning for their future care.

Download Full-text